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Chapter 3
Brains, Bodies, and Behavior
Did a Neurological Disorder Cause a Musician to Compose Boléro and an Artist to
Paint It 66 Years Later?
In 1986 Anne Adams was working as a cell biologist at the University of Toronto in Ontario, Canada. She took a leave
of absence from her work to care for a sick child, and while she was away, she completely changed her interests,
dropping biology entirely and turning her attention to art. In 1994 she completed her painting Unravelling Boléro, a
translation of Maurice Ravel’s famous orchestral piece onto canvas. As you can see inFigure 3.1, this artwork is a filled
with themes of repetition. Each bar of music is represented by a lacy vertical figure, with the height representing
volume, the shape representing note quality, and the color representing the music’s pitch. Like Ravel’s music (see the
video below), which is a hypnotic melody consisting of two melodial themes repeated eight times over 340 musical
bars, the theme in the painting repeats and builds, leading to a dramatic change in color from blue to orange and
pink, a representation of Boléro’s sudden and dramatic climax.
Shortly after finishing the painting, Adams began to experience behavioral problems, including increased difficulty
speaking. Neuroimages of Adams’s brain taken during this time show that regions in the front part of her brain, which
are normally associated with language processing, had begun to deteriorate, while at the same time, regions of the
brain responsible for the integration of information from the five senses were unusually well developed (Seeley et al.,
2008). [1] The deterioration of the frontal cortex is a symptom of frontotemporal dementia, a disease that is
associated with changes in artistic and musical tastes and skills (Miller, Boone, Cummings, Read, & Mishkin,
2000), [2] as well as with an increase in repetitive behaviors (Aldhous, 2008). [3]
What Adams did not know at the time was that her brain may have been undergoing the same changes that Ravel’s
had undergone 66 years earlier. In fact, it appears that Ravel may have suffered from the same neurological disorder.
Ravel composed Boléro at age 53, when he himself was beginning to show behavioral symptoms that were interfering
with his ability to move and speak. Scientists have concluded, based on an analysis of his written notes and letters,
that Ravel was also experiencing the effects of frontotemporal dementia (Amaducci, Grassi, & Boller, 2002). [4] If
Adams and Ravel were both affected by the same disease, this could explain why they both became fascinated with the
repetitive aspects of their arts, and it would present a remarkable example of the influence of our brains on behavior.
Every behavior begins with biology. Our behaviors, as well as our thoughts and feelings, are
produced by the actions of our brains, nerves, muscles, and glands. In this chapter we will begin
our journey into the world of psychology by considering the biological makeup of the human